I Married a Dead Man

I Married A Dead Man by Cornell Woolrich           254 pages

A young woman named Helen meets a young couple on a train.  Patrice and Hugh are recently married, very much in love and very happy.  Patrice is pregnant and they are on the way to meet Hugh’s family, who have never met or even seen Patrice.  Helen is also pregnant, but has been abandoned by the father of the baby.  Patrice takes Helen under her wing and the women are on the way to becoming friends when the train crashes.  Patrice and Hugh are killed and Helen gives birth to her baby.  Helen is mistaken for Patrice and is being cared for by Hugh’s family.  Desperate, with nowhere to go, and feeling loved and part of a family for the first time, Helen doesn’t tell the truth immediately.  Although she feels somewhat guilty, as time goes by and she comes to love Hugh’s family, she finds it harder and harder to admit the truth.  Then her ex-lover, who knows the truth, arrives and threatens to expose her lies.  Helen doesn’t know what to do.  I read this book because the movie, Mrs. Winterbourne, was loosely based on it.  I liked the writing style and I liked the story but I didn’t like the ending of the book.  I don’t want to give away the ending, but I felt like it wasn’t tied up enough.  I prefer more definitive endings.  People who like mystery and crime stories might like this book.